We made a Pilsner Urquell Clone on Dec 11, 2011 and used Saflager w- 34/70 yeast. It was fine out of Primary and Secondary. It had a nice flavor and was golden in color. We let it lager at 33 degrees till now. It is very clear but has darkened to an amber color and has a sorta cheap scotch aftertaste. I am surprized by the color change and the aftertaste. We use the standard Cornelius keg for Primary, Secondary and Lager Kegs. All transfers were done in a CO2 enviroment ( Target Keg Purged with CO2) and via a Black to Black transfer hose. Any ideas? BTW, the SRM at the transfer to the serving keg was about 3.5. It is now about 15.

Personally, I'm not a fan of dry yeast, so I can't offer much input there. However, all things being equal, if the yeast was the only difference, then that's your answer. Was the dry yeast old? How was it pitched? Did you hydrate the yeast in sterile water?

We got the yeast at Homebrew Headquarters and it was fresh (a couple of months). We did hydrate in sterile water. We were doing an experiment where we divided a 15 gallon batch into 3 Corny Kegs as fermenters. We pitched the yeast at 67 degrees. The dry yeast was hydrated in sterile conditions. We also used Wyeast in the other two (Urquell and Pilsner). We did a blind taste test out of secondary and the Urquell was slightly better with the dry yeast 2nd. The Pilsner was a little “fruity”. Unfortunately, we had a problem with the Pilsner yeast keg that may affect the taste so I have not tasted it. The taste was a slight aftertaste but the beer was good regardless. I personally think the “mind” was playing tricks as to the taste because of the color being too dark for the style. I think I will repeat to see if it was the yeast or something else. Right now, we are thinking it was the yeast. The odd thing is that when we tasted out of the secondary, the taste and color were very similar.

We drank the last of the keg (Made with Wyeast 2278 Czech Pilsner) It was great. I think the dry yeast caused the darker collor and also a slight butterscotch tastes (we did a similar diacytel rest with all three kegs) No more dry yeast for a lager.